Carbocations, stability groups

Oxides 28 and 29 react with nucleophiles like p-toluidine, although the reactivities of epoxides 1,4,28, and 29 differ by a factor of less than three. It is interesting that 253 is most stable toward the attack of p-toluidine, showing that the carbocation-stabilizing group does not necessarily facilitate the reaction with nucleophiles. 

Strikingly, solvolysis of the parent (tosyloxymethyl)cyclopropane under identical conditions led predominantly to unrearranged cyclopropylmethanol. No rearrangement to a cyclobutane was observed either with carbocation stabilizing groups on the methyl carbon. ... 

Carbocations stabilized by functional groups can also effect 3-alkylalion of indoles. From a synthetic point of view the most important are jV.jV-dialkyl-methyleneiminium ions which can be generated under Mannich conditions from formaldehyde and secondary amines[13]. The products, 3-(A/,A-dialkyl-aminornethyl)indoles, are useful synthetic intermediates (see Chapter 12). 

FIGURE 4 13 The order of carbocation stability is methyl < primary < second ary < tertiary Alkyl groups that are directly attached to the positively charged car bon stabilize carbocations... 

The major influence of the methyl group is electronic The most important factor IS relative carbocation stability To a small extent the methyl group sterically hinders the ortho positions making attack slightly more likely at the para carbon than at a single ortho carbon However para substitution is at a statistical disadvantage because there are two equivalent ortho positions but only one para position... 

The carbocation is stabilized by delocalization of the tt electrons of the double bond and the positive charge is shared by the two CH2 groups Substituted analogs of allyl cation are called allylic carbocations Allyl group (Sections 5 1 10 1) The group... 

The triarylmethyl cations are particularly stable because of the conjugation with the aryl groups, which delocalizes the positive charge. Because of their stability and ease of generation, the triarylmethyl cations have been the subject of studies aimed at determining the effect of substituents on carbocation stability. Many of these studies used the characteristic UV absorption spectra of the cations to determine their concentration. In acidic solution, equilibrium is established between triarylearbinols and the corresponding carbocations. 

Aikene chemistry is dominated by electrophilic addition reactions. When HX reacts with an unsymmetrically substituted aikene, Markovnikov s rule predicts that the H will add to the carbon having fewer alky) substituents and the X group will add to the carbon having more alkyl substituents. Electrophilic additions to alkenes take place through carbocation intermediates formed by reaction of the nucleophilic aikene tt bond with electrophilic H+. Carbocation stability follows the order... 

The mechanism involves a simple 1,2 shift. The ion (52, where all four R groups are Me) has been trapped by the addition of tetrahydrothiophene. It may seem odd that a migration takes place when the positive charge is already at a tertiary position, but carbocations stabilized by an oxygen atom are even more stable than tertiary alkyl cations (p. 323). There is also the driving force supplied by the fact that the new carbocation can immediately stabilize itself by losing a proton. 

Another reaction that has been applied to the generation of highly functionalized polymers is cationic polymerization [12-15]. Catalysts for cationic polymerizations are aprotic acids, protic acids, or stable carbocation salts. In these processes, the catalyst generally reacts with a cocatalyst to form an active initiated species. Initiation takes place by protonation of the monomer (Fig. 2A). Monomers that possess cation stabilizing groups, such as electron rich olefins, are preferred as they more readily undergo the desired polymerization process... 

Substituent effects Carbocations are formed in the S l reactions. The more stable the carbocation, the faster it is formed. Thus, the rate depends on carbocation stability, since alkyl groups are known to stabilize carbocations through inductive effects and hyperconjugation (see Section 5.2.1). The reactivities of SnI reachons decrease in the order of 3° carbocation > 2° carbocation > 1° carbocation > methyl cation. Primary carbocation and methyl cation are so unstable that primary alkyl halide and methyl halide do not undergo SnI reachons. This is the opposite of Sn2 reactivity. 

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